Kate and Gerry McCann were always suspicious about the indications from strangers that guaranteed to know the whereabouts of Madeleine. In the cases when money was demanded, Maddie’s parents seemed to know that the leads were false, just like Gonçalo Amaral describes in the book.

Find out everything in today’s edition of the newspaper “Correio da Manhã”

The disappearance of Madeleine prompted dozens of contacts to the authorities but the parents took none seriously

Kate and Gerry McCann were always suspicious about the indications from strangers that guaranteed to know the whereabouts of Madeleine. In the cases when money was demanded, Maddie’s parents seemed to know that the leads were false, just like Gonçalo Amaral describes in the book.

In her notes, Kate always shows her disbelief concerning the reliability of the information, while Gerry (the situation is described in the former investigator’s book) arose attention from the inspectors when, in the middle of a negotiation with a possible abductor, “he sucked on a lollipop in a relaxed manner, while reading banalities on internet sites and discussing rugby and football with one of the English policemen”.

One of the cases happened on the 14th of June, long before the three detentions over extortion attempts were made, when the Polícia Judiciária received an email from an anonymous person who says he knows where Madeleine is. “Why are there so many crazy and evil people?”, Kate writes in her notes that same day, in a comment about the situation, which she classified as something that could only be a “joke”.

On the 28th of June, the process of the disappearance of Maddie makes the first detentions in Spain, an Italian and a Portuguese, due to attempted extortion. “It’s all a bit weird”, Kate comments. Five days later, Madeleine’s parents receive a new email from the anonymous person who had established contact two weeks earlier. In her notes, Kate reveals that she has no doubts that it can only be someone looking for money and she congratulates herself over knowing that the man is going to be arrested: “I’ve had news about the Dutch extortionist – someone motivated by money. Anyway, he is going to be arrested tomorrow!!”

The couple’s behaviour when faced with possible leads concerning their daughter’s whereabouts, after a publicity campaign that went around the world and was built by the parents themselves, arose the investigators’ attention, namely during one of the first days when Kate, faced with the possibility of finding her daughter, is upset about the speed that is attained by the police car.

Note’s of Kate McCann

“We received a message from British police to go to the embassy. The Spanish police had received a call from a guy, Walter, who had information, but wanted to talk with us.” — June 6

“An anonymous person sent an email saying they knew who had Madeleine. Why are there so many crazy and evil people?” — June 14

The complete process concerning the disappearance of Madeleine McCann will be made available to anyone who manifests a legitimate interest, from Monday onwards. That group includes the parties (arguidos, witnesses and lawyers) and also journalists, due to the fact that this is a process of manifest public interest. Yesterday, the court invited everyone who had already made a requirement for the process to deliver a CD to the secretary’s office, so the digitalised process can be copied onto it.

From September onwards, the process will be available to the general public, and the investigation will be subject to the most rigorous scrutiny. Still, the judge’s decision ends up being surprising, due to the fact that this case involves a minor, and there would always be legal artifices that would allow for the investigation to be ‘barricaded’.

Lawyers want priority access to the documents

Carlos Pinto Abreu and Rogério Alves, the lawyers that represent the McCann family in Portugal, have requested the Portimão court for priority in the access to the process. The lawyers have ensured that the access for the general public was postponed, so they can access the original process and not a digital format.

Those who knew me through social communication got an opinion based on my connection with the so-called Maddie Case. During the investigation and after being removed, I was a target of the most terrible accusations from the British press, some local commentators and a man named Clarence Mitchell, whose role is not very well understood. On the eve of the publication of the book you already know, this gentleman was sending me threats : “that I should take care” – I was stunned!

Let me make it clear that I consider this to be an unacceptable tone, coming from a citizen of the oldest democracy in the world. Take care, why? Because I might step on a banana peel while walking? Is Mr Mitchell concerned about my health? I do not think so. We all perceive his threatening tone.

In Portugal, we are not used to people speaking that way. Nor is this the view we have of the British people, but there are always some people that fall out of standards. A criminal investigation need not be politically correct, nor fear veiled threats. The book only contains facts and contains no indictment. So the differences stand out.

September 7, 2007. Kate McCann entered the Polícia Judiciária in Portimão in the morning and the questioning extended into the evening. She was heard as a witness, but the tension in the air was evident. For the first time, people were concentrated at the PJ building’s door and murmured words of mistrust regarding the couple.

The Sunday edition of the newspaper “Correio da Manha ‘reveals the Judicial Police questions that the mother of Maddie refused to answer.

September 7, 2007. Kate McCann entered the Polícia Judiciária in Portimão in the morning and the questioning extended into the evening. She was heard as a witness, but the tension in the air was evident. For the first time, people were concentrated at the PJ building’s door and murmured words of mistrust regarding the couple.

On that day, CM had reported that the dogs had detected cadaver odour on Maddie’s mother’s clothes. A piece of evidence that the authorities intended to use as a trump, during a questioning that only changed course on the next day, after the PJ failed to see their doubts clarified.

Kate began by replying all the questions, but when she was made an arguida, she stopped talking. She went silent, in the company of her lawyer, and accepted all the insinuations in a provocative manner. Less than 48 hours later, Kate and Gerry travel to England with the twins, leaving the investigation into the disappearance of their daughter, who meanwhile had become four, behind.

They later guaranteed that they would return if necessary – which they never did, although they were never formally requested to return – and they are no longer arguidos for the suspected involvement in concealing the child’s body. Today, CM reveals the 48 questions that Kate did not want to answer during the interrogation and which reflect the investigators’ doubts. More than a year after Maddie disappeared, many of these questions remain unanswered.

Jeers for the McCann couple

The day that Kate and Gerry went to the PJ’s offices in Portimão marked a turnaround in the relationship between the local people and the couple: the curious bystanders that spent the day on the street jeered at Maddie’s mother and father, mainly criticising the “absence of visible suffering” from Kate. The foreign press also attended in great numbers.

The Judiciária’s 48 questions that Kate did not answer

1 On the 3rd of May 2007, at around 10 p.m., when you entered the apartment, what did you see, what did you do, where did you search, what did you handle?

2 Did you search in the couple’s bedroom closet? (said she would not reply)

3 (Two photographs of her bedroom’s closet are exhibited) Can you describe its contents?

4 Why are the curtains in front of the side window, behind the sofa (photograph is exhibited) ruffled? Did someone pass behind that sofa?

5 How long did the search that you made in the apartment after detecting the disappearance of your daughter Madeleine take?

6 Why did you say straight away that Madeleine had been abducted?

7 Presuming that Madeleine had been abducted, why did you leave the twins alone at home while you went to the Tapas to raise the alarm? Even because the supposed abductor could still be inside the apartment.

8 Why didn’t you ask the twins at that moment what had happened to their sister, or why didn’t you ask them at a later point in time?

9 When you raised the alarm at the Tapas, what exactly did you say and what were the words?

10 What happened after you raised the alarm at the Tapas?

11 Why did you go to warn your friends instead of calling out from the balcony?

12 Who contacted the authorities?

13 Who participated in the searches?

14 Did anyone outside of the group learn about Maddie’s disappearance during the following minutes?

15 Did any neighbour offer you help after the disappearance?

16 What does the expression “we let her down” mean?

17 Did Jane mention to you that she had seen a man with a child that night?

18 How were the authorities contacted and which police force was called?

19 During the searches, and already with the police present, in what locations was Maddie searched for, how and in what manner?

20 Why didn’t the twins wake up during that search, or when they went to the upper floor?

21 Who did you call after the facts?

22 Did you call SKY News?

23 Did you know about the danger of calling the media, because that could influence the abductor?

24 Did you request the presence of a priest?

25 How was Madeleine’s face publicised, with a photograph, or other media?

26 Is it true that during the search you remained seated on Maddie’s bed without moving?

27 How did you behave that evening?

28 Did you manage to sleep?

29 Before the trip to Portugal, did you comment on a bad feeling or a bad premonition?

30 What was Madeleine’s behaviour?

31 Did Maddie suffer of any disease or did she take any kind of medication?

32 What was the relationship like between Madeleine and her siblings?

33 What was the relationship like between Madeleine and her siblings, her friends and her colleagues at school?

34 Concerning your professional life, in how many and in which hospitals have you worked?

35 What is your medical specialty?

36 Did you work by shifts, in emergency rooms or in other departments?

37 Did you work on a daily basis?

38 Did you stop working at a certain point in time? Why?

39 Do your twin children have difficulty in falling asleep, are they unruly and does that upset you?

40 Is it true that at certain times you were desperate over your children’s attitude and that left you upset?

41 Is it true that in England you considered the possibility of handing over Madeleine’s guardianship to a relative?

42 In England, did you give your children medication? What type of medication?

43 Within the process, you were shown films of cynotechnical inspection of forensic character, where the dogs can be seen marking indications of human cadaver odour and equally human blood traces, and only of human origin, as well as all the comments that were made by the responsible expert. After the visualisation, and after cadaver odour was signalled in your bedroom next to the wardrobe and behind the sofa that was pushed against the living room window, you said that you could not explain anything apart from what you had already said?

44 You said that you could not explain anything apart from what you had already said, concerning the marking of human blood behind the sofa by the detection dog?

45 You said that you could not explain anything apart from what you had already said, concerning the marking of cadaver odour in the boot of the vehicle that you rented a month after the disappearance?

46 You said that you could not explain anything apart from what you had already said, concerning the marking of human blood in the boot of the vehicle?

47 You said that you could not explain anything apart from what you had already said, upon being confronted with the result of the collection of Maddie’s DNA, which was analysed by a British lab, behind the sofa and inside the vehicle’s boot?

48 Did you have any responsibility or intervention in the disappearance of your daughter?

The question that she answered

Are you aware of the fact that by not answering these questions you may compromise the investigation, which is trying to find out what happened to your daughter? She said “Yes, if the investigation thinks so”.

Process becomes public tomorrow

From tomorrow onwards, the entire investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine will be made available to the arguidos, to the witnesses, to the lawyers and also to the journalists, because it is a case of manifest public interest.

The process, which was archived on the 21st of July, will also be available to the general public, a situation that will allow for an authentic scrutiny of the work that was developed by the Polícia Judiciária. This decision, which came as a surprise due to the fact that the case involves a child, was only announced at this point in time, after the Portuguese lawyers for the McCann family, Carlos Pinto de Abreu and Rogério Alves, requested the Portimão Court for priority in the access to the process.

Last Wednesday, the Court had requested the interested parties that had already asked for the consultation of the process to leave a CD at the secretary’s office, given the fact that the process will be supplied in a digital format.

The archiving of the investigation into the little girl’s disappearance, which happened on the 3rd of May 2007, in the Algarve, precipitated the lifting of the judicial secrecy, which had been extended precisely until the month of August.

*

Comment: If Kate McCann felt she had to run back to the tapas bar to alert her husband and friends, rather than simply shouting from the patio balcony, then that surely proves it was NOT like ‘dining out in the back garden’. If Kate felt she would not have been heard, then what chance would they have had of hearing Madeleine or the twins had they been screaming inside the apartment?

Maddie Case – Investigators were convinced that the room where Maddie slept was deliberately manipulated by the couple

04 August 2008

The Judiciary Police has no doubt that the parents of Maddie changed the way furniture and objects were located in the apartment where Maddie disappeared the night of May 3, 2007, in the Algarve, thus manipulating the scene of the crime to better justify the thesis of abduction which they always advocated.

Find out everything about this case in today’s edition of “Correio da Manhã”.

Investigation – PJ believes that the McCann couple altered the crime scene in order to simulate the abduction

04 August 2008

Thanks to ‘astro’ for translation

Maddie’s parents accused of changing the disposition of the furniture and of washing the sofa

The Polícia Judiciária has no doubts that Maddie’s parents changed the disposition of furniture and objects in the apartment where Maddie disappeared from on the evening of May 3, 2007, in the Algarve, thus manipulating the crime scene in order to better justify the abduction theory that they always defended.

According to the Polícia Judiciária’s investigation, which from today onwards is public, the coincidence between the marking of cadaver odour and blood which was given by the sniffer dogs behind the sofa “indubitably” proves that the sofa was pushed against the wall after the little girl’s death. On the other hand, given the few indicia that was collected from this piece of furniture, which was located on the same spot where the dogs gave a signal, the Judiciária admits the possibility that it was “subject to washing” in order to eliminate eventual traces.

Soft toy placed on the bed

“There are strong indicia that they altered the crime scene, moving some of the furniture. The changes are indicators of simulation”, one of the PJ’s reports reads, also revealing that Maddie’s soft toy, which was found at the top of the bed where Maddie slept, was placed there at a posterior moment, given the fact that contrary to the soft toy, the bed failed to reveal cadaver odour.

“There was an intentional modification, in an attempt to take advantage for the simulation of the picture of abduction”, one can read in the process, where the investigators recall that the procedures from the family were in such manner as to conduct the investigation into the direction of the abduction thesis. The Polícia Judiciária believes that the false abduction was “worked by the group”, which made the investigators “waste time”.

McCanns mentioned death to the PJ

The possibility that Madeleine is dead was raised to the PJ by the McCanns themselves, who suggested contacting a person to indicate the spot where the cadaver could be found. “This fact became unexplainable for the elements of the investigation”, the PJ writes, remembering that in front of the journalists, the parents continued to manifest the hope that they would find their daughter alive.

The dogs never failed in 200 searches

In over two hundred searches, ‘Eddie’ and ‘Keela’, the sniffer dogs of the Springer Spaniel breed that were used in the investigation into the disappearance of Maddie, did not give a single “false positive result”.

The guarantee is given by English expert Martin Grime, who in the report about the search guarantees that the behaviour of the dog that is trained to detect cadaver odour “changed immediately after opening the front door of the apartment” where Madeleine McCann disappeared from.

“He went into the apartment with above average interest”, the document reads, explaining that the dog signalled inside the couple’s bedroom, in the living room, behind the sofa and next to the side window. The same signs were given by the dog that is trained to detect blood residues. The dogs signalled the same spots and objects that are related to the McCanns – house, car and clothes – which was decisive for being made arguidos.

Notes

No credibility

The deposition by Jane Tanner, who said she saw someone crossing the street carrying a child, was not considered credible by the PJ, which does not understand how the McCanns’ friend, upon seeing someone walking away from Madeleine’s apartment “did not act or speak out immediately”.

Everyone lies

The PJ says that the information that was collected from the McCanns and their friends was “worked upon” in order to strengthen the abduction theory. But it rapidly perceived that “everyone lies” in the issue of checking the children, further explaining that the family information, which in these cases is “fundamental”, was always “distorted”.

Files Process is public – From today onwards, the files of the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine can be consulted at the Court of Portimão by lawyers, witnesses and journalists.

Brown Political pressures – Kate’s notebooks reveal that Maddie’s parents called the English prime minister, Gordon Brown, requesting for political pressure to be placed on Portugal.

Book Amaral recounts death – The former coordinator of the Maddie case recounts in his book ‘Truth of the Lie’, his thesis about the case and defends that the little girl was killed in the apartment and her body frozen.

Without traces of a four-year-old child that reportedly slept there. That is how the inspectors from the Polícia Judiciária found Madeleine McCann’s bed a few hours after the disappearance and which can be seen in the image that CM publishes today. The photograph still raises questions from the investigators and scientific police experts, to which the child’s parents had no answer.

Find out more details about this case. Exclusively in Thursday’s edition of Correio da Manhã

First photo of the bedroom after the disappearance shows the bed where the child reportedly slept, almost untouched

Without traces of a four-year-old child that reportedly slept there. That is how the inspectors from the Polícia Judiciária found Madeleine McCann’s bed a few hours after the disappearance and which can be seen in the image that CM publishes today. The photograph still raises questions from the investigators and scientific police experts, to which the child’s parents had no answer.

Maddie, according to Kate and Gerry, had gone to bed at 7.30 p.m., at the same time as the twins, who shared the cots beside it. But the bed is partially made, with the sheets and the cover unopened and the soft toy – on which the English dogs detected cadaver odour – lined up with the pillow. In the bed, no signal of the presence of the child on that evening of the 3rd of May was found – not even the odour of the dead child.

At its side, the cots of twins Sean and Amelie, strangely without sheets or any sign of their presence in that bedroom. This while it was described to the authorities that the twins were asleep beside Maddie when she went missing.

It is also strange to note the absence of any person in the photograph, despite the fact that the investigators found several people inside the Ocean Club apartment, including friends of the couple and military from the GNR.

The differences between the witness reports and what was registered by the authorities will remain shrouded in mystery.

Details

Spot – In the news report that was elaborated by the GNR, it is pointed out that the distinguishing mark of the missing child is a spot on her left leg, and not the brown spot in one of her eyes.

Messages – On the 24th of September of 2007, the instruction judge denied the prosecutor access to SMS and MMS messages, in defence of privacy, but authorised access to the traffic flux.

Laptop – In the same dispatch, the judge permitted access to the hard drive of the laptop computer that was rented by Gerry McCann after the disappearance of his daughter.

Journalists receive process

The Public Ministry in Portimão distributed 44 copies of the judicial process concerning the disappearance of Madeleine to Portuguese and English journalists yesterday. One year and three months after the investigation started – and after it was archived, pending better evidence – the mystery still stands but the police work is now open to public scrutiny.

Twelve English newspapers, three English television stations and one English information agency now hold the process, as well as the national media in general.

The process was delivered, recorded on a DVD. The 47 volumes of the investigation, including appendixes, are inscribed in more than 30 thousand pages. The DVD weighs in at 1,10 GB, distributed over 60 files in PDF format. They include everything, except for some rogatory letters (due to logistics reasons) and the images of the cynotechnical inspections, which can be seen at the Court in Portimão from September onwards.

“This never happens in the United Kingdom”

“We heard so much about the judicial secrecy in Portugal and now we are going to see all the facts. After so much speculation, we are going to find out what the police has been doing. This never happens in the United Kingdom. Police and Prosecutor do not reveal the processes” – Greg Milam, Sky News

“Weak and failed investigation”

“A lot of people in the United Kingdom, including myself, have strongly criticised the Portuguese investigation. I’m expecting to see whether I am right or stand corrected. But I suspect that I’m going to find a weak and failed investigation” – Robert Moore, ITV

The Public Ministry (PM) admits that Madeleine was killed, discards the abduction theory, but does not believe that the McCann couple is involved in their daughter’s death. In the archiving dispatch, prosecutor Magalhães e Menezes says that Kate and Gerry were neglectful, but drops the crime of abandonment and closes the investigation with criticism over the Polícia Judiciária’s work.

Read all the details, exclusively, in Wednesday’s edition of Correio da Manhã

Investigation – Dispatch defends the little girl’s death but clears the McCann couple

Ana Luísa Nascimento

06 August 2008

Thanks to ‘astro’ for translation

Prosecutor says that the PJ obtained “little” in terms of conclusive results

The Public Ministry (PM) admits that Madeleine was killed, discards the abduction theory, but does not believe that the McCann couple is involved in their daughter’s death. In the archiving dispatch, prosecutor Magalhães e Menezes says that Kate and Gerry were neglectful, but drops the crime of abandonment and closes the investigation with criticism over the Polícia Judiciária’s work.

“The investigators are aware of the fact that their work is not exempt of imperfections. They have worked with an enormous error margin and what they have achieved is very little in terms of conclusive results”, the magistrate writes, considering that the result of the investigation does not allow “for an average man to formulate any lucid, sensible, serious and honest conclusion” about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

José de Magalhães e Menezes assumes there is “a high degree of probability that a homicide took place” – he goes further than Gonçalo Amaral who always spoke of an accidental death – but he does not believe in the involvement of the McCann couple, considering that they have always manifested a normal behaviour. On the other hand, the prosecutor alleges that the McCanns had neither the time nor the means to conceal the body, remembering that on the evening of the 3rd of May 2007, the couple had been in Portugal for a few days only and their routine was limited to the limits of the ‘Ocean Club’: “They did not now the surrounding terrain and, apart from their English friends, they had no contacts in Portugal”.

The prosecutor does however fail to point out any other justification for the disappearance of the little girl, after concluding that “no consistent indications were found indicating the execution of an abduction” – defended by the McCanns.

Despite “clearing” the couple, the Public Ministry writes a list of questions that remain unexplained, namely why the procedures of surveillance over the children, by the McCanns and their friends, were changed that night and how the twins failed to wake up in the middle of the confusion – after Kate gave the alert about the disappearance of her daughter. Concerning the constitution of the McCanns as arguidos, he says it is lawful and legitimate and concerning the case, he concludes that “Maddie’s disappearance is a case from real life”.

Over one hundred thousand euros in tests

The hundreds of forensic tests that were performed during the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine cost the state thousands of euros. The last volume of the process only, includes five invoices, concerning DNA tests and analyses of collected biological residues, all over 20 thousand euros. The total is of, at least, 145 thousand euros spent in forensics testing, which was carried out in Portugal and in England. At the British lab, the results of the tests were corrected and were not conclusive.

Reopening of the case under analysis

The McCanns’ Portuguese lawyer, Rogério Alves, is analysing the process in order to decide whether to request the reopening of the case of the disappearance of Madeleine. “I’m analysing the process to see if it is worthwhile to give some impulse to the process, that is, to request the opening of the instruction or to advance to a hierarchical superior at the Public Ministry”, Rogério Alves said in Portimão yesterday. The deadline for the instruction in this case ends on September 20.

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Direct speech – Gonçalo Amaral, former coordinator of the process

“With another Public Ministry there would have been another decision”

Correio da Manhã – The Public Ministry admits that Madeleine was killed but archives the case. Is this outcome a consequence of the pressures that you always complained about?

Gonçalo Amaral – I maintain that there are strong indicia. The interpretation and valuation in the light of the Law depends on the person that carries it out. With another Public Ministry I admit there could have been another decision.

Do you think that there was enough evidence to sustain an accusation?

When I left the investigation, there was enough indicia of concealment of a cadaver, simulation of a crime and eventually of abandonment. There are no doubts that there is concealment of a cadaver. The Public Ministry itself speaks of homicide and we didn’t go that far.

The Public Ministry says that the investigators are not exempt of imperfections…

Neither the investigators nor the prosecutors. We are verified by and have always worked under the directions of the Public Ministry. All that we did, we did with their knowledge and with their consent.

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Accidental death

The former coordinator of the investigation, Gonçalo Amaral, believes that the little girl died accidentally in the apartment, on the evening of May 3, and that her parents concealed the body.

Numbers from the process

443 searches were carried out in the investigation of the Madeleine case.

300 policemen from various security forces were mobilized during the first days.

130 elements from the Polícia Judiciária were detached to the investigation.

700 witnesses were heard, 112 of them were employees of the resort.

2000 diligences were counted by the Public Ministry.

3 persons were made arguidos: Robert Murat and Madeleine’s parents.

……………………………………….

The reader knows

by Manuel Catarino, chief editor

Since the process of the ‘Maddie case’ became public, on Monday, the most heard sentence on the Portuguese television channels is “The British press revealed that…” – followed by the news of one or another detail that was extracted from the process. They are not reporting any news, at least not for the readers of CM [Correio da Manhã] – who have known for a long time everything that is being revealed now. The truth is that there is nothing new to reveal about the interior of the voluminous process: everything – really everything – was in CM’s pages over the last months, the fruit of a long and hard investigation work that the readers deserve.

His name is Barrington Godfrey Norton, he is a music teacher and at the time resided inside a white van next to Praia da Luz, in the Algarve

The two photofits that are included in the process concerning the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are of the same person, and according to Gonçalo Amaral, the former coordinator of the case, belong to an individual who was identified as Barrington Godfrey Norton a few days after the witness statements from Derek Flack and Lance Purser.

These two English citizens told the Portuguese police that they had seen a suspicious man near the Ocean Club, in Praia da Luz, where Madeleine McCann disappeared from. “We identified the person and discarded the information”, Gonçalo Amaral told CM, referring to Flack and Purser.

The first portrait appeared with Derek Flack, aged 64, who described a man of Caucasian race, dark complexion, around 1,75 metres and aged between 25 and 35, according to the deposition that was collected by the Portuguese police. In the same document, it can be read that Derek stated he could not identify the individual if he saw him again. The second portrait originated with Lance Purser, who saw a man in the surroundings of the same location where Derek saw the suspect. The description that was made mentions a Caucasian man, of dark complexion, aged approximately 35 and 1,70 m tall.

Based on these statements, the Portuguese police managed to identify the suspect, and questioned Barrington Norton on the 8th of May 2007. The music professor admitted to having been in the area of the Ocean Club, where he delivered a curriculum and picked up dinner.

English press

‘The Sun’ – ‘Why did the police hide the two portraits?’ is the title of the English paper, which cites the two citizens concerning the testimonies.

‘Daily Mail’ – This newspaper also presents the two portraits, and it can be read that the Portuguese police never revealed them to parents Kate and Gerry.

‘Guardian’ – Apart from the photofits, the newspaper mentions the testimony of a Dutch woman who reportedly spoke to an English child, aged 2 or 3, who supposedly was named Maddie.

Musician – The two photofits picture Barrington Norton, an Englishman who had been in Portugal for five years and slept in his white van. The GNR inspected his vehicle and didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.

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Direct speech – Gonçalo Amaral, former coordinator of the process

“Description without value”

Correio da Manhã – Why did you never reveal these two photofits?

Gonçalo Amaral – We didn’t divulge those photos because we cannot go on revealing photofit after photofit. Even more so because we identified the person and it was a musician who was perfectly known in the area. It made no sense.

But were the testimonies by Derek Flack and Lance Purser credible?

There is the testimony from two English persons who reportedly saw a suspect in the surroundings of the Ocean Club. That person was identified by us. The description by one of them ends up being of no value, because at a certain point he says he could not identify him if he saw him.

There is now a witness in Holland who says that she spoke to Maddie in a shop?

I think it is strange that persons spoke to the child and she said her name was Maddie. To us, the parents always said that she did not answer to Maddie, but only to Madeleine.

The criminal instruction judge did not allow for ambient tapping in the villa in Praia da Luz where the McCann moved into in July last year, a short time after Maddie’s disappearance. The Judiciária wanted to listen to the conversations between Kate and Gerry in a search for the possible involvement of Maddie’s parents in the disappearance of the child, which took place on the 3rd of May 2007.

The McCanns moved into the Vista do Mar villa, in the Luz Parque area, when they were not arguidos yet. They only left the house on the 9th of September, when they returned to England.

The request from the Judiciária took into account a series of indicia that is mentioned in the process, including the only fingerprint that was found on the Ocean Club apartment’s window of the bedroom where Maddie slept, and where she allegedly was taken through. That fingerprint belongs to Kate McCann.

The hand mark – thumb and indicator – may indicate that Kate opened it. The direction and the position of the fingers on the window indicate that it was opened towards the left.

This is one more lead that was abandoned on the way, despite the glaring contradiction with Madeleine’s mother’s witness statement.

Kate is the only person who refers that the window was open. As there are no signs of a break-in or of the presence of strangers, the Polícia Judiciária looked for traces of gloves, which weren’t found either. The only marking is Kate McCann’s hand, given the fact that the window had been cleaned on the day before the child’s disappearance by the employee who carried out the cleaning of the apartment.

In the statement that she gave to the Portuguese police right after her daughter’s disappearance, Kate clearly refers that “the door to the children’s bedroom was completely open, the window was also open, the shutters were up and the curtains were open, while she is certain that she had closed everything.”

The fingerprint was registered and photographed by the Polícia Judiciária’s investigators and may indicate that Madeleine McCann’s parents simulated the abduction crime.

………………………………………….

Gonçalo Amaral, former coordinator of the process: “It was a very important means of evidence”

Correio da Manhã – Was it important for the investigation to listen to Kate and Gerry’s conversations?

Gonçalo Amaral – It was a very important means of evidence, the last opportunity that we had to find out what they said. Even in order to set some doubts aside. The judge refused and we accepted it.

Why is Kate McCann’s fingerprint relevant? Wasn’t it supposed to be there?

It is the only fingerprint on the window, when she said herself that she never opened it. As there are no signs of a break-in and no signs of gloves and the window had been cleaned a short time before, it becomes relevant, mainly when they defend the theory that an abductor went through the window.

There is a denunciation in the process concerning the possibility that Maddie was abducted on demand from a Belgian paedophile ring. Did the PJ follow that lead?

Everything was analysed. It was treated in the same manner as all the other denunciations. We investigated.

The car used by Kate and Gerry McCann, a Renault Scénic, travelled 2,750 kms in 36 days, between May 27 and July 3, while the McCanns toured the world. This was one of the leads that the investigators followed. The PJ tried to discover who drove the car and where it went, in which traces were found that the PJ assumed to be those of Madeleine.

Find out all the details of this case in the Saturday edition of the newspaper “Correio da Manhã”.

The vehicle used by Kate and Gerry McCann, a Renault Scénic, travelled 2,750 kms in 36 days, between the 27th of May and the 3rd of July, at a time when the McCanns were globetrotting. This was one of the leads that the investigators followed. The PJ tried to clarify who drove the vehicle and which routes were undertaken by the vehicle, in which traces (body fluids, DNA) were found that the PJ presumed to be those of Madeleine.

The vehicle was delivered to the McCann couple with 3,114 kilometres, on the 27th of May last year, just a few days before one of the most publicised journeys made by the parents of the child who disappeared in Praia da Luz on the 3rd of May 2007: the audience with Pope Benedict XVI. On the 3rd of July, the car’s kilometre counter registered 5,864 kilometres.

Traces

The vehicle driven by the McCanns turned out to be one of the most important means of evidence for the PJ, after traces of the child had been found by the English dogs, namely human cadaver odour and blood.

In one of the cino-techniques (human remains detection by expert dogs) undertaken on the 6th of August by the dog ‘Eddie’, from the English Springer Spaniel breed, who detects odour of cadaver, the animal signalled the car of the McCanns from ten cars that were in an underground car park. There were traces of blood on the key and in the car boot of the vehicle. The key still had the odour of a corpse.

Identical traces were found by the animals in the apartment of the Ocean Club, in a flowerbed of the back yard, on two pieces of Kate’s clothing and on one of Maddie’s and on the ‘soft toy’ of the child, which the mother carried everywhere.

In the apartment there was evidence, specifically in the couple’s room (in a corner, near the wardrobe) and in the living room (behind the sofa, next to the side window of the apartment).

NOTES

Archiving

The research to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was filed by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) on July 21.

Re-opening

The process can be reopened if new evidence emerges.

30 Thousand pages

The process available to the media on Tuesday was recorded on DVD. It has more than 30 thousand pages, which correspond to 47 volumes of research.

Madeleine McCann’s parents disagreed with the English police only a few days after the little girl’s disappearance. On the 14th of May, Kate Healy was shocked and frustrated with the English liaison officers. The motive for the disagreement appeared when the investigators asked Kate where her daughter was.

The policemen who came from the United Kingdom with the mission of providing support to the McCann family are professionals with specific training in abductions and sequestrations.

Their task would be to support the McCanns, to liaise with the Polícia Judiciária and to work with the other British agents that were installed in the Algarve. When they were in the Algarve, the investigation indicated the abduction theory as the most coherent.

According to the former coordinator of the process, Gonçalo Amaral, the officers who liaised with the family “didn’t last for more than a week in their functions”, after the disagreement with the family. The difficulty of communication between the couple and the investigators was nevertheless never officially communicated to the Polícia Judiciária.

The retreat from Portugal of the experts in sequestrations and abductions takes place two months before the same British authorities suggest the Judiciária pay more attention to the theory of the child’s death on location, a possibility that until then was on a secondary plane of the investigation.

Forensics expert Mark Harrison, a national counsellor for all the police agencies in the United Kingdom, on searches in homicide and missing person’s cases, is then sent to Portugal. It is Mark Harrison who recommends the use of dogs to detect cadaver odour.

Interpol followed over one hundred leads in Belgium

In Belgium, 107 persons state that they saw Maddie. Nevertheless, Interpol in Brussels revealed that they had no success in collecting indicia that lead to the child’s abductors. At the police station in Leicestershire, the area where the McCanns live, detective John Hughes also traced a disheartening result concerning the searches, in June last year. Meanwhile, the private detectives of Metodo 3 informed that they will sue the British papers that accuse them of being ‘maffiosi’. The Spanish now say that their participation in the searches was “reduced”.

Strong means

High technology – The English didn’t spare any efforts in the use of high technology to find Maddie.

Task Portugal – At the PJ in Portimão, the English built an investigation room named Task Portugal.

Abductor’s profile – Several English experts cooperated to trace the profile of a possible abductor.

Using the dogs – The English dogs had already participated in more than 200 operations.

Press

‘Mirror’ – The newspaper announces that the Portuguese police tried to carry out tapping in the McCanns’ villa, but the judge refused the request.

Sightings – Process includes 2,550 pages about people who say they saw the little girl

11 August 2008

Thanks to ‘astro’ for translation

The detectives that were hired by the McCanns search for the little English girl on Margarita Island, in Venezuela and in Brussels today. The PJ studied over 1,500 locations

Reports appear at an almost daily rate in different parts of the world, where little girls that look like Maddie were seen. Today, the detectives that were hired by the McCanns investigate the possibility that the English girl is alive in Belgium or on Margarita Island, in Venezuela. The Polícia Judiciária has already studied over 1,500 locations. The information fills 2,550 pages, divided into 14 volumes, of the thirty thousand pages of the process. All the sightings that were narrated to the Portuguese authorities failed to reveal any indicium that Maddie is alive.

In Brussels, a bank security worker says he saw a little girl that looked like Madeleine a week ago, accompanied by a Muslim woman from North Africa. John Berckmans, a spokesman for the Belgium police, says the images from the bank’s video surveillance system are being observed, in order to establish the veracity of the allegations. This sighting appears after it was publicised that the Scotland Yard obtained an information “without evidence” that a Belgium paedophile network had placed an ‘order’ on the internet for a girl, three days before the disappearance. Nevertheless, the PJ also followed up on this lead, which ended up revealing no credibility.

In Venezuela, detectives follow another lead that was raised by British citizen Trevor Francis. On the 16th of May, he recognised Maddie in a restaurant, accompanied by two Spanish women. In the process, yet another recent sighting is reported. This time, in Portugal, by an Angolan citizen, who associates Maddie with a Dutch car.

The Portuguese police reveals that Maddie was seen on the same day in places that are over four thousand kilometres apart. The growth in the volume of sightings made it a priority to collect material to identify the DNA profile.

Video of orgies with children has no connection with the case

The British authorities informed the PJ about the existence of a video where a little girl that looked like Maddie was sexually abused in an orgy. The images were reportedly captured in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, and would include the presence of Arab sheiks. The information was from Superintendent Stuart Prior and included that the video would be delivered in London in exchange for money. Although the girl in the video resembled Maddie, the video was immediately removed from the process because the recording had been made four months before the disappearance.

Press

‘Sunday Express’ – The newspaper places yet another efit of the possible suspect who abducted Maddie in Praia da Luz, on the front page.

‘Sunday Mirror’ – After Belgium, the newspapers detail a possible sighting in the Caribbean.

Criticising the Polícia Judiciária’s work, the McCann couple understands that “the obtained documents have potential that may not close the case”

An English newspaper has struck a deal with the McCann couple, as a reply to the defamatory news about the latter, to participate in the payment of the fees of the detective team that tries to find Maddie. The detectives collect 166 thousand pounds (212 thousand euros) per month to carry out the searches, according to the ‘Sunday Times’, which omits the name of the newspaper and of the investigator firm.

The new team of private detectives has a multimillionaire salary, compared to the amount that was paid to the Spanish at Método 3. The company, which is directed by Francisco Marco, publicised that they received 60 thousand euros for six months of work. The coverage of expenses against the presentation of receipts earned them an additional 108 thousand euros.

The work of the private investigators is carried out based on the investigation that was done by the Polícia Judiciária, until the process was archived. With the purpose of finding Maddie alive, these experts dedicate great attention to the depositions by persons who assert that they saw little girls looking like Maddie in different locations of the world. In the observation of leads, the detectives have valued the possible connection between the alleged abduction and a Belgian paedophile network, which three days before the disappearance “ordered through the internet” a girl with Maddie’s characteristics. Just like the British police, the Portuguese authorities did not value the lead. Even the Child Protection Centre in the United Kingdom comments the information with some reservation.

Criticising the performance of the Polícia Judiciária, the McCanns defend that the publicity of the process has given the searches a new impulse. “The documents possess great potential and some may allow for the case not to be closed”, their spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, sustains.

Strong means

Donation fund – With the purpose of paying for a private investigation, Maddie’s parents have created a fund for the public to give money, right after the English girl’s disappearance.

Empty fund – The McCanns’ spokesman stated in June that the fund was not drained, and that 630 thousand euros were then available.

Another two million – In July, the fund was reinforced with two million euros of donations.

…………………………………………………………………..

Amaral’s book reaches Spain in September

The Spanish version of the book ‘Maddie, the Truth of the Lie’, written by the former coordinator of the investigation, Gonçalo Amaral, is going to be edited in Spain, on the 2nd or the 9th of September. The book launch coincides with two major interviews that Amaral is going to give to Spanish televisions: to Antena 3 (Sept 1) and to Telecinco (Sept 8). There are also contacts for the distribution in South America, including Brazil. 140 thousand copies have already been sold in Portugal. The author will not be attending the autograph session in Castro Marim today, because he will be at the funeral of Júlio Santos, a PJ coordinator.

The PJ successfully solved the two attempts to extort money from the McCann couple in return for information about their missing daughter. But Maddie’s father’s laughs during the negotiations caused strangeness.

The ambience in the room was heavy, when on the 14th of June 2007, contact was established with a stranger in Holland, who seemed to cast a light on the darkness that the investigation was in, a month after the disappearance.

Against the nervousness of the Portuguese and the English policemen, Gerry McCann’s attitude surprised everyone in the room, the former coordinator of the process, Gonçalo Amaral, later recollected.

In a careless manner, Maddie’s father “made a contrast with the anxiety of the policemen” and intrigued the investigators. Gerry “sucked on a lollipop in a relaxed manner while he read banalities on the internet and discussed rugby and football with an English policeman”, the former coordinator from the Polícia Judiciária wrote in the book ‘Truth of the Lie’.

The Dutch police would eventually discover that the Dutchman from Eindhoven, who used a cybercafé to demand two million euros per email, knew nothing about Maddie’s whereabouts.

In late June 2007, the McCann couple would suffer another extortion attempt, with the promise of information about their daughter, made by a couple in South Spain.

The intervention of the PJ with the Spanish authorities demonstrated that Italian Danilo Chemello and Portuguese Aurora Pereira Vaz, who claimed four million euros, didn’t know anything about Maddie McCann, either.

The coordination between the Judiciária and the police forces of Spain and Holland led to the detention of the individuals, who wanted to extort six million euros from the McCanns.

With the solving of both frauds, the Polícia Judiciária reinforced the thesis that the child had suffered a deadly accident in the Ocean Club holiday apartment.

Profession explains coldness

The coldness that Gerry McCann always demonstrated during the process of his daughter’s disappearance was noted both by the Portuguese and the British investigators. Gonçalo Amaral, the former operational coordinator of the investigations into the ‘Maddie case’ recalls that one of the English policemen used to say: “Don’t forget that he is a cardio surgeon and starts opening people up right after breakfast.” The ‘cold’ expressions of the McCanns also surprised the public opinion. But despite the fact that Maddie’s mother was never seen crying in public, the investigator stated that “Kate cried several times” for Maddie.

Ransom

Arrested in Holland – On the 4th of July 2007, the Dutch police arrested the 39-year-old man who tried to extort two million euros from the McCanns.

Detained in Spain – On the 28th of June 2007, the Spanish police arrested the Italian and the Portuguese who tried to deceive the McCann couple.

The authorities investigated more than half a thousand homes in order to explain the disappearance of Maddie. But only in two places, where the McCann couple lived, parents of the missing British girl on May 3, 2007, was evidence found that the child might be dead.

In the early days after the disappearance, the GNR military officers and PJ visited 443 dwellings in the area of Praia da Luz, including the apartment rented by the McCann couple in the Ocean Club, from where the girl disappeared. Nothing was found that might indicate the whereabouts of the child to the PJ, who concluded that the apartment rented by McCann showed no signs of forced entry.

From May 14, 2007, the PJ held a series of searches of houses that may have been used by Robert Murat (then suspected of kidnapping the girl), his girlfriend, Michaela Walczuch, the husband of her, Luis Antonio, and Russian Sergey Malinka, but no traces of Maddie were found .

In August 2007, British dogs which can detect body odour and biological traces were used in the Ocean Club apartments rented by the McCanns and their friends, the home of Robert Murat and the ‘Vista do Mar’ (‘View of the Sea’) villa, inhabited, between July and September, by the McCanns. In the final findings there was evidence that Maddie died in the apartment of the parents at the Ocean Club. The smell of a corpse was also observed on clothes of the girl and mother, taken from the ‘Vista do Mar’ villa, and the hire car after the disappearance.

PRESS

‘The Sun’

The popular British newspaper reports that Antonio Migliardi, ice-cream vendor in Brussels, says he has seen Maddie on the streets of the Belgian capital.

Sky News

The Belgian girl, referred to as Maddie, was identified by her father, disclosed the spokesman of the Belgian police, Lieve Pellens.

McCann couple – Detectives and spies have three months to obtain a solution

João Saramago

15 August 2008

Thanks to ‘astro’ for translation

The detective team, which is being paid millionaire salaries, that was hired by the McCann couple to find Maddie has already pursued the authors of a possible abduction for three months, but until now failed to find any secure clues that lead to the English girl that disappeared in May last year.

The family’s spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, confirmed that a North-American detective agency “considered to be the best” was hired by the McCann couple to carry out a worldwide investigation, which took off 13 months after the disappearance. The spokesman added that three months of work have already been concluded. The result of the work of these former investigation agents from intelligence services like the FBI, the CIA and the MI5, will not be known until the end of November.

The McCann couple will pay a total amount of 500 thousand pounds (approximately 629 thousand euros) for the work of this detective agency, whose name was not made public.

Clarence Mitchell clarified that “for security reasons, no information concerning the identity of the former FBI, CIA and MI5 agents that are involved can be advanced”. But he confirmed that “elements with military, police and espionage training exist”.

The spokesman considered that this team is better prepared to find Maddie, when compared to the Spanish detectives from Metodo 3, who possessed important contacts, but only in Portugal, Spain and Morocco.

With their main operation bases installed in the United States and in the United Kingdom, the new detectives are prepared to start an investigation in any location in the world, at any moment. It was a lead that was followed by these agents that led the Belgian police to analyse the video surveillance system of the KBC bank, in Brussels, where a child was mistaken for Maddie.

Press

‘Daily Star’ – The new detective team that was hired by the McCann couple carries out searches in various parts of the world and reunites the best agents from various nationalities.

‘Daily Mail’ – The money to hire the detectives was taken from the ‘Find Madeleine’ fund, which was created by the parents after the disappearance, to receive donations.

The disappearance of Maddie on the 3rd of May 2007 led the Polícia Judiciária to hundreds of leads that were connected with paedophilia. The agents followed the footsteps of 150 paedophiles and authors of crimes of a sexual nature, still failing to establish a connection between the disappearance of the child and any sexual predator.

The first suspect that was followed by the PJ right at the beginning of the investigation was a sexual abuser of children, of English nationality, who fled the United Kingdom, in 2005, with connections to a bar that is located 150 metres away from the bedroom where Maddie disappeared from. But the PJ managed to establish contact with his stepfather, who informed the investigators that the young man was in Iraq. The English authorities confirm this information and the lead was eventually abandoned.

At the beginning of the investigation, British newspaper ‘The Sun’ publicised the fact that the Algarve is a haven for British paedophiles, with 130 of them living in the region. Some were questioned by the PJ. There was also a British couple who raised suspicions concerning the relationship of David Payne (a friend of the McCanns) with children, but the British only delivered the information in October, and nothing was proved concerning a connection with the doctor.

During the same month, following operation ‘Predator’, the PJ’s experts observe the faces of hundreds of children on paedophile sites, looking for a lead.

Gerry explains disappearance with paedophilia

Only a few hours after Maddie disappeared from Praia da Luz, in the Algarve, her father, Gerry McCann, said during a phone conversation that the little English girl, then aged three, had been the victim of a sequestration by a paedophile network. Gerry’s words were later narrated to the Polícia Judiciária by another English citizen who was on holiday at the Ocean Club. This tourist listened to the phone call, without his presence being noticed by Gerry.

Protected data

English police refuses – The English police opted to keep the confidentiality of the list of paedophiles that are referenced in the process.

Private life preserved – The revealing of the identities was considered to be an intrusion into private life. Nothing was proved concerning an involvement of the paedophiles that were heard.

New questioning – Some English newspapers yesterday reported the Public Ministry’s impediment to a new questioning of the McCanns.

Press

Sky News – Gerry McCann made a new appeal to authorities to deliver data that help to find his daughter.

The Sun – The newspaper remembers that the investigation concludes that it is most probable that Maddie is dead.

A British Tourist confused the son of Dinamo Zagreb footballer, Dino Drpic, with Madeleine McCann, and tried to remove the child from his mother.

The case occurred on the island of Krk, where a British child was convinced that it was Maddie and warned their parents. The tourists took some photographs at a distance and then closer to the boy, two-and-a-half-years-old, trying to remove him from the mother.

The wife of the footballer, Nives Drpic, is a model and is therefore accustomed to being photographed by the Croatian press. However, she became distrustful when the English (tourist) approached the boy.

Only after they gripped the arm of the boy did the tourist realise their error.

Maddie McCann disappeared on May 3 in Praia da Luz, Algarve while on vacation with her parents and siblings in a tourist resort. Since then the child, who this year completed five years, has been seen thousands of times around the world.

Can the twins, Maddie’s siblings, remember how the English girl disappeared from the apartment in Praia da Luz, on the 3rd of May 2007? “No”, neuropsychologist Nelson Lima considers.

Sean and Amelie were two years old on that tragic evening when their sister disappeared. “At that age, a child is not able to retain any memory whatsoever”, the president of the Intelligence Institute, in Oporto, refers.

The creation of memory obeys the completion of three exercises by the brain, the neuropsychologist explained. The first one is observation; the second one is the registration of the facts, an ability that is not developed in a two-year-old child yet, and which is vital to carry out the third operation: remembrance.

“There are persons who state that they remember experiences that took place before the age of two”, but, according to Nelson Lima, “that is not possible. In truth, there is no memory of those events”.

“What exists is a different situation, which is called a virtual picture. In this case, the individual shapes an image of the story later on, and assumes that as real. It is not memory, it’s a construction that is built by imagination, based on witness accounts”, he added. A virtual reality that Sean or Amelie may have created and expressed in the meantime, because according to their father, Gerry, the twins started speaking in Portugal, after losing their sister.

Future memory

Recollections of Maddie – If she is alive, Maddie is now five years old, which means that she is able to remember.

Twins asleep – Testimonies reveal that, despite the turmoil that was created after the disappearance was discovered, the twins continued to sleep. They may therefore not have seen Maddie’s last moments in the bedroom.

Taken from the crèche – Maddie’s siblings frequented the Ocean Club’s crèche until July 2007, when the parents moved into a villa.

Hours after the disappearance of the little English girl, the McCanns used the covers of children’s story books that belonged to their daughter, to write down details of the evening

Hours after Madeleine disappeared, the English girl’s parents tore the covers of two children’s books that the child enjoyed leafing through before going to sleep, to write down the details of the evening of the disappearance.

There, according to what can be verified by the pages that have been appended to the process, Madeleine’s parents noted the periodicity of the visits to the rooms where the various children slept and who within the group of English people had verified that nothing out of the ordinary was taking place.

The PJ appended those documents to the process on September 9 of last year, then referring that the same had been apprehended by the GNR on the night that the girl stopped being seen.

The importance of the book covers was related to the fact that the PJ considers that there was a manipulation of the testimonies – the depositions between the elements of the group were combined in a detailed manner. That was the motive why those pieces of evidence were gathered only after Gerry and Kate were made arguidos, at a time when they had already formally assumed that they were suspects.

To the authorities, it was then an important detail at that moment in the investigation, because it revealed the little girl’s parent’s concern in protecting themselves from possible responsibilities, overshadowing the preservation of objects that belonged to the child at a moment in time when she had only been missing for a few hours.

Which led the authorities to admit that there could have been a manipulation of testimonies.

Son of player confounded with child

English tourists confounded the son of Dino Drpic, a football player for Dynamo of Zagreb, with Madeleine McCann and tried to remove the child from his mother, according to the Croatian press. The case took place on the island of Krk, when the tourists confounded the little English girl with the son of Dino and Nives Drpic, aged two and a half. Upon seeing blonde Leone Drpic, a British child was convinced that it was Maddie and warned her parents. The parents, after taking a few photographs from a distance, came closer to the little boy and tried to take him. “There was a moment when she got hold of his arm, apparently believing that nobody was watching him [the boy]. As soon as I approached, she realised her mistake and apologised”, said Nives Drpic.

Details

Reconstruction – The reconstruction of the evening of the disappearance, which never took place because the English weren’t available to return to Portugal, was fundamental to understand all the steps that were made by the elements of the group that evening. The PJ intended to determine at exactly what time the little girl had gone missing.

Photo-fit – Jane Tanner asserted that she had seen a stranger at around 9 p.m., carrying a child. She admitted that it had been the abductor and explained that Gerry was very close to her when she saw him. A photo-fit was made, but the authorities always considered that her deposition was not credible.

Timeline – Maddie was last seen, by persons other than her parents and siblings, at around 5.30 p.m.

A strange attitude by Kate, on the day of Madeleine’s disappearance was pointed out by Fiona Payne, one of the members of the British group on holiday in Praia da Luz.

Fiona Payne’s witness statement says that Maddie’s mother, during the first hours marked by despair and by a feeling close to frustration, several times approached the twins, holding her fingers close to their noses.

Sean and Amélie were asleep at this time, but Kate seemed to want to confirm that that her youngest children were alive, checking if they were breathing.

This behaviour, linked to the fact that Maddie’s grandparents confirmed that the children took a sleeping solution to help them go to sleep – a common medication in the UK and often given to children – raised doubts amongst the investigators. But the fact was never taken further, in spite of of one of the theses defended by the first team responsible for the investigation that the disappearance was linked to an accident, which could have been directly linked to the medication given to the children.

Another fact confused the investigators. Kate and Gerry always said that Maddie, Sean and Amélie fell asleep at 19.30/20.00, which was the reason for their being capable of leaving them alone when they went to dine in the restaurant situated 100 metres away, from where they had no view of the apartments.

The version changed later whn Gerry was interrogated, as an arguido.

At that moment, the father told that Maddie had difficulties in falling asleep and that they had instigated a points system in order to tackle this. The girl would be rewarded when she managed to achieve certain targets.

TESTS WERE NOT POSITIVE

Months after Maddie’s disappearance and at the time Kate already felt that the investigation was turning against her, she suggested to the PJ that the twins should be subjected to tests, to see whether they had been drugged on the night of the disappearance.

The request was perceived as a strategy to confuse the investigation, given that the couple were both doctors, who would know that, at that moment it was no longer possible to detect any trace of substances that could have been ingested by the children. In the process it was verified that this thesis was never judged to be credible.

PRESS

‘THE PEOPLE’

The parents of Maddie are “devastated and angry” with the news that a French national wants to sell photos taken at the Ocean Club and which can blame Kate and Gerry in the disappearance of her daughter.

‘BELFAST TELEGRAPH’

The newspaper reports that Gerry continues to believe that his daughter will be found alive and asks that anyone who has information about Maddie to contact the private detectives.